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One Behemoth, Still Guilty (6/28/01)
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See, we told you that "Redmond Justice" would be heating up soon! Our mailbox is currently choking on all the mail from people rushing to tell us that a decision has been issued; faithful viewer Tom Gunter was first out of the gate to inform us that, as reported by CNN, the appeals court has "reversed a lower court's ruling that Microsoft be broken into two companies as a remedy for anticompetitive practices." So much for the prospect of a couple of Minisofts tearing up the joint...
But is this really a win for Bill and his minions? Not so fast, Sparky! If you put the gun down and read the details of what the appeals court decided, you'll find that Redmond didn't fare nearly as well as most people first thought. In fact, the CNN story originally referred to the ruling as a "major victory" for Microsoft, but that phrase has since been removed. As faithful viewer Rod Meza confirms (and the man is a lawyer, you know), the appeals court only vacated Judge Jackson's remedy, but the judges upheld both his findings of fact and his conclusions of law. In other words, Jackson's order that the company be split in two has been overturned-- but the appeals court agreed with Jackson's ruling that Microsoft is a monopoly and violated antitrust law. In other other words, GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY!!
Interestingly enough, based on our quick glimpse at the 125-page ruling, it looks to us like the only real reason why the court overturned the breakup order is because of Jackson's penchant of blabbing to the press, "leaving himself open to the appearance he was biased against Microsoft." Ah, that pesky judicial misconduct... So what's next? Well, the appeals court kicked the case back to the District Court, "for reassignment to a different trial judge for further proceedings consistent with this opinion."
So Judge Jackson is now officially out of the loop, and another judge is going to have to decide not whether, but how Microsoft will be punished. From our perspective, that's a good thing; we never really believed that splitting the company in two would actually fix the problem anyway. When the new district judge joins the cast, with luck he or she will come up with a remedy that might actually change things for the better. And with more luck, it won't take another two years to happen.
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SceneLink (3147)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/28/01 episode: June 28, 2001: A letter of dubious origin confirms AtAT's mystical prediction of 1 GHz Power Macs being introduced (though not shipped) at Expo. Meanwhile, the same letter claims that Apple will have the option to buy Motorola's entire PowerPC business next year for the low low price of $500 million, and the appeals court rules that Microsoft should not be split in two-- at least, not because of Jackson's ruling...
Other scenes from that episode: 3145: Yes, We Have REAL Powers (6/28/01) Hmmm... we're not about to quit our day jobs and go into the "fortune telling through imitation goat innards" business full-time anytime soon, but our first foray into that potentially lucrative field sounds startlingly on-target-- provided you believe that a letter just posted to Mac OS Rumors is indeed from a well-informed Apple employee, as it purports to be... 3146: Do-It-Yourself Chipmaking (6/28/01) If you're currently sticking to the theory that the letter from an "Apple employee" posted to Mac OS Rumors is an elaborate hoax, allow us to donate an extra piece of supporting evidence: there's a second connection to recent AtAT ponderings, which some people might consider far too much alignment to be a mere coincidence...
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